ETD Guide/Introduction/Increasing sharing and collaboration among universities and students

As more and more ETDs become available at universities or through their agents, more and more students will draw upon the emerging digital library of ETDs. This will make it easier for students to learn of the work of other students. Contact is quite feasible since many ETDs include email addresses and other contact information, of faculty helpers/advisors at least if it is not feasible to track down a graduating student author. Once contact is made, it is possible to have further discussion of references, application of methodologies, reuse of datasets, and extension of prior work, as well as investigation of remaining open problems. This may lead to friendships, collaborations, joint publications, and other benefits. Such may expand beyond student-student relationships to also include faculty, groups, laboratory teams, and other communities.